Happy End

 

(France, 2017) Director: Michael Haneke. Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Mathieu Kassovitz, Fantine Harduin, Franz Rogowski, Laura Verlinden.

“Film is 24 lies per second at the service of truth.” – Michael Haneke.
After the uncharacteristically compassionate Amour, which won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, the Austrian master of dark humor returns to his devastating take on Europe, as seen in Cachè, The White Ribbon and Funny Games. The great (now 86-year-old) Jean-Louis Trintignant, star of Amour and The Conformist, plays a rich Frenchman who gathers his avaricious son Mathieu Kassovitz (Amelie), daughter Isabelle Huppert (Story of Women), and grandchildren to the family home in Calais. It’s not a loving reunion he wants, but someone to help him commit euthanasia. And if his kids won’t do it, he’ll find someone even worse. 107 min
“Haneke chips away at an upper-class family whose members are ensconced in their own privilege, deaf to the guilty howls of conscience and oblivious to the suffering in their midst.” – Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times.